I know I should eat more kale – it is good for me and I am always trying to add more & diverse greens to my diet. But I’ve always struggled with different ways to prepare it, as it is not the easiest green to cook with. So it was great to see a recent post from Jenna at Delicious Daydreams which totally inspired me on Sunday evening. I was looking for a good healthy dinner so I headed to my local fruit & veggie stand to stock up….and then worked with what I had in the pantry.

I did a slight riff from her recipe: substituted spelt spaghetti for angel hair pasta, used a mix of red and green kale, added some olives from the fridge and used feta cheese rather than ricotta salata. Amazing! The lemon/garlic mixture is lovely – such wonderful summery flavour. One note: it helps to tear up the kale leaves as small as possible before steaming…

I love it when I find a dish that is not only delicious but also healthy. I am already imagining all the other variations I could use on this recipe: adding sun-dried tomatoes, sprinkling goat cheese on top, etc. I am also growing baby kale in the garden this summer so would like to see how that works in this recipe. Totally open to new ideas anyone else has for other additions / substitutions…

By the way, a bit of trivia (courtesy of Harold McGee): kale, collards and cauliflower all their names from the Latin word “caulis”, meaning “stem” or “stalk”, the part of the plant from which the edible portions emerge.

Quick update: made a variation on this recipe last night with fiddleheads as I love to use them as much as possible when they are in season. Just make sure you rinse the fiddleheads well before using and it was delicious!